Metric Prefixes

Metric Prefixes

Notes:

  1. The long and short scales are two of several large-number naming systems for integer powers of ten that use the same words with different meanings:
    Long scale: Every new term greater than million is one million times larger than the previous term. Thus, billion means a million millions (1012), trillion means a million billions (1018), and so on.
    Short scale: Every new term greater than million is one thousand times larger than the previous term. Thus, billion means a thousand millions (109), trillion means a thousand billions (1012), and so on. The short scale is typically used in the U.S.
    See
    Wikipedia for more information.

  2. At its 27th meeting of the General Conference on Weights and Measures concluded on Nov. 18, 2022, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) added four new prefixes to the SI. They are the “ronna” (10^27) and the “quetta” (10^30) at the top; and the “ronto” (10^-27) and the “quecto” (10^-30) at the bottom.